OMG I have OCD

[Eugene Fong Dere]

OMG I have OCD
by Eugene Fong Dere

Outstanding as it is to have a psycological disorder, there appears to be an alarming trend in the terms of self diagnosis and purposely describing oneself to have a mental condition. Many, consider themselves to have 'off the shelf' brands of psychological dilemmas, but what disturbs me the most is the fathomed belief that being a geek means one MUST have an underlying condition.

Geekdom or whatever you wish to call it, is not defined by being 'this' weird or 'so' crazy, being a gamer (or geek as you will) is simply being involved with what is deemed geek culture at the time.

I've seen this happen alot, unfortunately, way too many times to consider these self diagnosed people genuine. Having a desire to do something, or a particular 'weird interest' doesn't imply a condition; as the symptoms backing the belief is usually coincidental or exagerrated. Atleast in the sense that we're trying to come up with an 'on the spot' reasoning on why we do the things that we do.
Verification, as usual, is too much damn work. Exactly how much work it takes to self diagnose, on the other hand, is about the time it takes to hear the definition of a catchy sounding psycho-phrase, and then saying "I've got that!".

Other ailments that confuse the mind are the belief that we have bizarre 'trigger' conditions. Conditions that are affecting our decisions simply because we didn't like the end result, and thus the fancy 'psych term' might 'normalize' our behaviour. Did you know, that everything I have ever done is perfectly reasonable and that all it would take is to simply ask me a million different questions?

Only in this case, this is a description for everyone. Most people believe that every thought, action or even desire has to stem from some other inherent philosophy like "I hate my life so I ignore others" type of mentality. Gamers are no different, and we find blame by using the same escape mechanisms.

Incidentally, these 'triggers' we have are usually stuff you can see in most CSI or science type dramas. Having something people can relate to right away, makes it easier to believe you have it. Anything else and you'd have to go into realms of explanation, and well, explaining something means not everyone will believe it.

Vital, it is, to be recognized.

Everyone needs to define themselves, be it by their position in life (eg I'm a doctor) or missing that, something else more unique. Over-eating guy, always looks perfect girl, center of attention guy, these are personality traits we can easily be recognized and so we sort of slot ourselves into them.

Coming from a background where I was known as 'over eating guy', I've fallen for the trap personally. Dinner meals were always shared, and usually I'd be the 'supporting man' for easily a few hundred food deliveries. Otherwise, if I didn't 'eat for two others', people would be asking if something was wrong or what the hell 'trick' was I trying to pull. Magical as it is to be recognized for SOMETHING in this crazy world, what we are being recognized for and the ending results will greatly affect us long term. Great health for 'fitness guy', but definite problems for 'procrastinator girl' or 'collects expensive things guy'. I guess I should point out that 'fitness guy' doesn't have things that great, as positive recognitions make bigger masks for other problems. Having turned things around in my local to now be known as a fitness guy myself, I'm constantly doing battle with others accepting this redefinition. Anyways, regardless of what masks we wear to be recognized, my point is, we may be doing these very things for the recognition.

I technically have no problem with this, but what I do have a problem with, is that its also considered 'cool' to have some condition that is going to impair us.

Having a psychological disorder is not fun and games. And usually, 'disorder' actually represents a form of terror that's going on. Very often to the point that if a person is afraid of intruders, they check their locks 5 to 6 times in a row to make sure it works. Even some drivers have the terror that a bump on the road means they have hit a pedestrian somehow so they'll stop their car and look around on the street for the body. Others might be about fires destroying their homes and so they make pointless phone calls during the day to make sure their ovens have been shut off, and they check again the moment they get home.


Chilling as it may sound to be continuously excited or nervous about something, this is a truly crappy description to be using. Disorder may be a broad stroking description of one's social behaviour, but its one's ability to take awareness and responsibilities for one's actions versus reaching for a description to match behaviour that are two different entities.

Ok, I think I may be starting to go a little bit too far in describing my annoyance at fake OCDers. Maybe its because of how common its become in my examination of social circles, or maybe its because I've seen businesses trying to take advantage of this trend. Genuinely speaking, I have seen headshops, tshirts and button makers create slogan gear that read "I own too many of these shirts/stickers/buttons because of my OCD". I find the concept distasteful. How about going to weight watchers and selling 'diet food'? Ah, wait, they do that already.
Virtually every audience that could be targetted to make a buck these days, is already being targetted.

Eventually, the end result of targetting a subsection of individuals is that the subsection becomes divided into further subsections. Oh, here comes the vampire loving 'emo's versus the must wear black jackets 'emo's. Can't people see that our quest for personalized definition is simply renaming things that are already the same?

Drawing back to the misinformed opinion that gamers equals geeks which equals 'its ok to have a mental condition because we are geeks that game'.

Doing what you want is an expressive freedom that should be a human right. In doing this, it should be in a manner that is not harmful to others and at the same time, it should not be misleading. Diagnosis formed by self, creating made up trauma stories or what not MIGHT be attention grabbing, but in the wrong way.

Yikes, I think I'm repeating myself again... Other ways to explain yourself?

Understand what you enjoy, and enjoy it openly. Sure, it might be dressing poorly and not taking showers but be honest about it. Eerie as it is, simply being honest about how you keep cups facing the same way or books in alphabetical order is actually ok. Everyone has a unique brand of insight and not needing to hide behind some other malady actually makes life, easier.

When a person lies to themselves, it's a bad habit. Having said a lie multiple times to the point that you actually believe it? Unbelievably stupid. This actually happens, try it with your favourite food. I'm serious, I did this with coffee once and changed how I ordered it. Did that five times in a row and the next thing I knew I couldn't drink coffee the way I did originally.

It was Kurt Vonnegut who said, "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."
Divising oneself isn't new, a Bernard Shaw quote, "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

Then again, on the flipside of this entire topic, there are some people who are legitmately asking for help. Hear and repeat what they are saying to you, as sometimes the clarification might be needed. Answers are best found from real professionals, so don't be afraid to recommend your friend to seek one.

Really though, this week's column was also written using 'OMGIHAVEOCD'
repeated a bunch of times.

(Check the first letter of every sentence)

[Michael Lum]

Oh geez - found this article a tiny bit confusing at first and skipped to the end, and now understand why...
My hat off to you. Good writing, being able to put OMGIHAVEOCD into everything. I have to try that later!
Having fun looking forward to the next article!

And BTW, it was pretty hard, trying to do it. Very hard. Even though I had the foreknowledge I was going to do it.

Ongoing future projects, I think, I'll have to skip doing it. Can't handle how difficult it would be to continue doing it in every thing that I would write.

Deliberately creating sentences to use those letters hurts my head!

Ouch! Michael's signing off now.